I’ve been slowly making my way through the classic SNES Final Fantasy trilogy via the Pixel Remasters after I realized how egregious of a blindspot they were to me, someone who proclaims to be a true lover of the JRPG as a genre. Last year I went through FFIV, the first of this trilogy, and found it to be much more linear than I expected, directly pointing you where to go and hurrying along from arc to arc, all while rotating out party members to keep the RPG mechanics fresh. Of course the story is good and the sample platter of party members makes for a variety of different play styles and strategy, and the game does eventually open up and allow for a bit of roaming, but overall I was generally just happy to See What All The Fuss Was About, and I came away from FFIV with a pretty good idea of why some folks might call it their favorite RPG or even their favorite game.
So imagine my surprise when FFV just about pulls a 180 in its approach to design and structure, tightly limiting your party members, but making them blank slates in a mechanical sense, not to mention offering many extended sequences of total freedom before you step into the next cutscene trigger. Even sections with few possible destinations are made to feel open by encouraging players to wander off into the weeds a bit, experiment with this or that job, go for a rare steal, try and learn some situationally valuable blue magic maybe.
That’s not to say that there’s no urgency to the affair, the storyline of FFV is basic, but effective. The initial act lays the groundwork of a patchwork group of adventurers who come together to look into why the world is unraveling at the elemental level, starting with wind disappearing entirely. Cutscenes across the game tend to last ~4-5 minutes max and sometimes feature only a handful of lines of dialogue, using pointed and meaningful lines to communicate a lot quickly. Though there is a twist or two to be found here, the story mostly sticks to the basics, instead embellishing its world with interesting dungeons and implied lore. Who built this giant floating mechanical fortress? What kind of magic is animating the books in this library? Naturally, I had grown quite attached to a number of characters by the ending, but a large part of that is due to how FFV so smartly intertwines its story with its mechanics.
FFV’s mechanics are defined by its job system, probably one of the most prolific things about it and a system that has seen many different iterations and variations since (and before really, see: FFIII), even outside of Final Fantasy. It’s easy to see why. It’s a versatile system with plenty of opportunities for personalized strategies and player expression. It’s such a simple but elegant way of letting players take ownership of these characters, to really customize them over the course of the game and make them feel unique. Jobs grant characters unique and useful abilities, heavily dictate stats, and even determine the type of gear a character can use. But importantly, they take a lot of investment to really squeeze the juice out of them, meaning it pays to plan ahead and commit to who masters which jobs, striking a balance between ability coverage (everyone is decent at everything) and specialization (everyone has a specific role they’re suited for).
The designers also had the confidence to keep these characters in your roster for the entire game (barring some minor exceptions), a decision that pays off twofold by having players grow attached mechanically while also serving the narrative of this group of 4 adventurers united in a common goal. Instead of trying to top FFIV’s varied roster of colorful characters, V instead prunes the cast down to a few solid archetypes that are characterized not only by snappy and efficient cutscenes, but also by their mechanical functions. For example, I knew Lenna had the best base stats for a magic user and also wanted to get ahead of the inevitable need for a Black Mage, however this investment meant I had a hole in the roster for a healer, and I opted to start training the gruff pirate Faris as a White Mage. This decision, made out of practicality, ended up endearing me to Faris as an outwardly callous person who nevertheless nurtures a soft side for healing, especially as she grew into the role and became more acquainted with the group. The game is littered with these kinds of mechanics as narrative, where FFIV was content to simply deliver the narrative to you.
I found the real secret sauce of FFV to be its encounter design. Part of this is the way it pushes the envelope in the ways it can portray a wide variety of situations in its combat system. Sure, 90% of the time combat encounters are just that, combat focused, but sometimes you run into A Character, someone shouting at you from the other side of the battle, or a creature with a specific agenda. You’ll run into enemy soldiers all too eager to flee from the burning building you’re both in, or machines that scan your party and dole out spells that target them based on their current level. You’ll even run into one of Final Fantasy’s most infamous characters during a certain battle on a certain bridge of a certain size. The enemies may not have the character of an SMT bestiary, but they’re able to express themselves in ways that make them feel like more than just stepping blocks to acquiring power as you progress.
The other part of the encounter design is the meticulousness shown by the designers in giving so many enemies unique characteristics like valuable rare steal items, or blue magic, or specific weaknesses that can allow a prudent decision in job choice to essentially “solve” a dungeon. One of my favorite examples of this was learning a new song for the Bard job that doles out extra damage to undead enemies. I had mostly dismissed the job up until this point but decided to give it a try, especially since the Bard’s ability can fulfill the same utility as a number of spells, but without the MP cost. This decision made the following dungeon a cakewalk for me, demonstrating the usefulness of a Bard as they stopped, confused, and eventually slayed enemies with ease. These kinds of little enemy details made it so I was constantly referring to the built-in bestiary to see how I wanted to approach extended sections, and it made me feel clever when a bit of grinding for a good item paid off and led to a bounding leap for my DPS output, or a piece of equipment with unexpected properties.
Minor spoilers for the finale of the game, but the jobs being functions of the crystal shards you spend the early game gathering leads to one of the most satisfying integrations of mechanics as narrative I can think of in recent memory. After you defeat the final boss the world finds itself coming apart at the seams, and it is through the reforming of the 4 elemental crystals that stability and peace are restored. It’s not explicitly stated (Bartz says something like “Oh wow the shards still had some energy left in them”), but it can be inferred that it was the development of your party’s jobs, the AP you poured into those shards, that re-energized them and allowed the reborn world to prosper. This revelation coupled with some truly deft (though some may say underdeveloped, I quite like the brevity) character work, had me walking away from the game with a song in my heart.
Some final notable things I want to call out, the music is of course extremely good, filled to the brim with classics and enhanced with arrangements made for this Pixel Remaster. I didn’t use them often but I love difficulty adjustment options like being able to turn off encounters or double EXP gain. I also appreciate the aggressive auto save feature, because I sure died a lot! FFV is an RPG that respects your intelligence, and it will put you through the ringer if you aren’t bringing your A game.
When the credits had finally rolled I started to seriously consider that FFV might be my new favorite entry in the entire series, having played 1-4, 7, 10, 13, and 15 extensively. The way it grants so much latitude to a player in terms of strategies while also constantly putting forth varied and challenging scenarios engaged me on a level I simply haven’t been with another FF title, and the way it uses its mechanics to augment its story also endeared me like few others. FFV is an absolute cornerstone of the RPG genre, a truly classic title that marries form and function like few other games.
So imagine my surprise when FFV just about pulls a 180 in its approach to design and structure, tightly limiting your party members, but making them blank slates in a mechanical sense, not to mention offering many extended sequences of total freedom before you step into the next cutscene trigger. Even sections with few possible destinations are made to feel open by encouraging players to wander off into the weeds a bit, experiment with this or that job, go for a rare steal, try and learn some situationally valuable blue magic maybe.
That’s not to say that there’s no urgency to the affair, the storyline of FFV is basic, but effective. The initial act lays the groundwork of a patchwork group of adventurers who come together to look into why the world is unraveling at the elemental level, starting with wind disappearing entirely. Cutscenes across the game tend to last ~4-5 minutes max and sometimes feature only a handful of lines of dialogue, using pointed and meaningful lines to communicate a lot quickly. Though there is a twist or two to be found here, the story mostly sticks to the basics, instead embellishing its world with interesting dungeons and implied lore. Who built this giant floating mechanical fortress? What kind of magic is animating the books in this library? Naturally, I had grown quite attached to a number of characters by the ending, but a large part of that is due to how FFV so smartly intertwines its story with its mechanics.
FFV’s mechanics are defined by its job system, probably one of the most prolific things about it and a system that has seen many different iterations and variations since (and before really, see: FFIII), even outside of Final Fantasy. It’s easy to see why. It’s a versatile system with plenty of opportunities for personalized strategies and player expression. It’s such a simple but elegant way of letting players take ownership of these characters, to really customize them over the course of the game and make them feel unique. Jobs grant characters unique and useful abilities, heavily dictate stats, and even determine the type of gear a character can use. But importantly, they take a lot of investment to really squeeze the juice out of them, meaning it pays to plan ahead and commit to who masters which jobs, striking a balance between ability coverage (everyone is decent at everything) and specialization (everyone has a specific role they’re suited for).
The designers also had the confidence to keep these characters in your roster for the entire game (barring some minor exceptions), a decision that pays off twofold by having players grow attached mechanically while also serving the narrative of this group of 4 adventurers united in a common goal. Instead of trying to top FFIV’s varied roster of colorful characters, V instead prunes the cast down to a few solid archetypes that are characterized not only by snappy and efficient cutscenes, but also by their mechanical functions. For example, I knew Lenna had the best base stats for a magic user and also wanted to get ahead of the inevitable need for a Black Mage, however this investment meant I had a hole in the roster for a healer, and I opted to start training the gruff pirate Faris as a White Mage. This decision, made out of practicality, ended up endearing me to Faris as an outwardly callous person who nevertheless nurtures a soft side for healing, especially as she grew into the role and became more acquainted with the group. The game is littered with these kinds of mechanics as narrative, where FFIV was content to simply deliver the narrative to you.
I found the real secret sauce of FFV to be its encounter design. Part of this is the way it pushes the envelope in the ways it can portray a wide variety of situations in its combat system. Sure, 90% of the time combat encounters are just that, combat focused, but sometimes you run into A Character, someone shouting at you from the other side of the battle, or a creature with a specific agenda. You’ll run into enemy soldiers all too eager to flee from the burning building you’re both in, or machines that scan your party and dole out spells that target them based on their current level. You’ll even run into one of Final Fantasy’s most infamous characters during a certain battle on a certain bridge of a certain size. The enemies may not have the character of an SMT bestiary, but they’re able to express themselves in ways that make them feel like more than just stepping blocks to acquiring power as you progress.
The other part of the encounter design is the meticulousness shown by the designers in giving so many enemies unique characteristics like valuable rare steal items, or blue magic, or specific weaknesses that can allow a prudent decision in job choice to essentially “solve” a dungeon. One of my favorite examples of this was learning a new song for the Bard job that doles out extra damage to undead enemies. I had mostly dismissed the job up until this point but decided to give it a try, especially since the Bard’s ability can fulfill the same utility as a number of spells, but without the MP cost. This decision made the following dungeon a cakewalk for me, demonstrating the usefulness of a Bard as they stopped, confused, and eventually slayed enemies with ease. These kinds of little enemy details made it so I was constantly referring to the built-in bestiary to see how I wanted to approach extended sections, and it made me feel clever when a bit of grinding for a good item paid off and led to a bounding leap for my DPS output, or a piece of equipment with unexpected properties.
Minor spoilers for the finale of the game, but the jobs being functions of the crystal shards you spend the early game gathering leads to one of the most satisfying integrations of mechanics as narrative I can think of in recent memory. After you defeat the final boss the world finds itself coming apart at the seams, and it is through the reforming of the 4 elemental crystals that stability and peace are restored. It’s not explicitly stated (Bartz says something like “Oh wow the shards still had some energy left in them”), but it can be inferred that it was the development of your party’s jobs, the AP you poured into those shards, that re-energized them and allowed the reborn world to prosper. This revelation coupled with some truly deft (though some may say underdeveloped, I quite like the brevity) character work, had me walking away from the game with a song in my heart.
Some final notable things I want to call out, the music is of course extremely good, filled to the brim with classics and enhanced with arrangements made for this Pixel Remaster. I didn’t use them often but I love difficulty adjustment options like being able to turn off encounters or double EXP gain. I also appreciate the aggressive auto save feature, because I sure died a lot! FFV is an RPG that respects your intelligence, and it will put you through the ringer if you aren’t bringing your A game.
When the credits had finally rolled I started to seriously consider that FFV might be my new favorite entry in the entire series, having played 1-4, 7, 10, 13, and 15 extensively. The way it grants so much latitude to a player in terms of strategies while also constantly putting forth varied and challenging scenarios engaged me on a level I simply haven’t been with another FF title, and the way it uses its mechanics to augment its story also endeared me like few others. FFV is an absolute cornerstone of the RPG genre, a truly classic title that marries form and function like few other games.